Snapper fishing at Mud - Tonight

[mustang5]

hi guys,

Looking to use the good weather this weekend starting tonight.

I really want to catch a few snapper at mud, Have been trying my hardest the last few weeks. Can someone tell me this.

1. How on earth do I fish for snapper without having puny little parrot fish steal my bait??

2. When bait fishing (When feeling a little lazy between SPs casting all night), what is the choice of bait to use? And What rig have you guys found successful? I have been using a twin hooked patanosga rig, no luck yet though...

3. I have been persevering with SPs, and so far have only been delighted to catch PIKE!!! lol... I have been trying in about 10m of water on all surrounds of the island. no luck with the Snap. Tried the Gulp, prawn and various others with a 20lb leader connected to fireline. What am I doing wrong?? lol

I know the answer is not easy, and techniques change every 5 minutes pending tides/conditions and so forth. Maybe I am just looking for some assurance hahaha!!

$100 a trip to bring home the news of a few parrot fish and Pike really gets embarrassing hahaha!

[uglyfish]

100 bucks a trip? Sheesh mate it don't even cost me that much to go out the other side of straddie offshore..I'd like to help u champ but I don't fish sp nor mud anymore.
I do better in the river for snaps..

[Cheech]

So does everyone. A bit early in the season, but there should be more about as the water cools. I went to Mud on Tuesday. First trip this year. We managed a couple of feeds, but a real mixed bag. Of all the keepers, none of them snapper.

The tuskies will disperse soon. Also, they sleep at night, so you shouldn't be getting that many bait stealing if you are fishing nights. Usually it is the 15cm squire that do the stealing.

I prefer Mullet. We also use squid, but the fish were not interested in the squid this trip. I sometimes get them whole. Being north side, Morgans often have them whole for 2.95 per kg. I get extra and freeze them. Being whole and the flesh protected, they freeze quite well. Then scale and slice off the fillets. Good thing about whole is that you then have a nice juicy fish frame to use as burly. Just whack in to the anchor well if it constantly has water coming in and out like mine does, or into a bag or burly dispenser.

I just use a ball sinker straight above the hook, but my deckie was using a paternoster. Ordinarily I would have said that was the wrong rig for the shallow waters of Mud, but he out fished me!?

If you are a SP fisherman doing part time bait, you may end up doing as well as my SP fishing being a bait fisherman. Not very well :) .

If you are fishing nights with bait, try coming in to shallower water. The fish sneak in under the cover of darkness, so you do not have to be in 10m of water.

Hope this helps.

Cheech

[charleville]

I would echo what Cheech says.

You won't be getting Tusk fish taking your bait at night time.

For baits, I am too lazy to catch my own so I just use pilchards and whopping big prawns. You can never tell which will work on any given outing but the pillies are a good bait to take at any time. Again being a lazy bugger, I just use ganged hooks with a sinker (if any) straight on the hooks. I used to lose a few fish at the knots on swivels etc and the blokes on this forum said "forget the swivels" so I did with great success.


I fish with two rods. With one, usually, I will toss out an unweighted pilly as far as I can out the back of the boat and put that rod in the rod holder. That will often generate you some tailor on winter nights but often you will also get some good snapper on it as the unweighted pilly will find its way half way down the water column if you throw it out far enough and that is where you will often find some good sized snapper.


For active fishing with my other rod, I will put a sinker straight on the hooks - the size of sinker being dictated by the current. I want the bait on the bottom but not too heavy. No sinker if the current allows it.

I only use monofilament when bait fishing - less chance of yanking the hook out of the fish's mouth when I strike.


I have only caught one legal snapper out there in several weeks/months but there is heaps of other stuff to be caught.

BTW, fresh squid is a great bait to use. By fresh, I meant caught out there and used immediately. Otherwise, pillies and big prawns work well for me. I buy my bait in bulk from a wholesaler so the cost of using big prawns is not so bad. Likewise, the snapper love fresh tailor which are pretty easy to come by out there in winter.

The high tide at Mud will be at about 6 pm tonight. I would be there by 5 pm if possible and fish through to say 8.30 pm. (Unless of course the fishing comes alive - in which case, you can phone your missus and tell her that you have found another love for rest of the night. ;D )


BTW, I also agree with uglyfish - if you are spending $100 per trip to Mud Island, all up, you are about $70 over my budget. I get my bait in 15 kg boxes of pillies or 5 kg of prawns at Richards Bros fish wholesalers. They welcome fishos but only deal in folding cash. ie no cards at all.


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[mustang5]

Hey gents,

Well went out a little later than expected and missed the high tide but still got over there at about 830. Started off with bait which gave us small squire every cast, along with a masive sting ray.

So bait fished for the majority of the night, bringing in about 30-40 small squire/bream, then had a snooze to get my energy for the soft plastic session at sunrise.

Sunrise came along and after reading here and there about whats successful, I threw on a 5 inch gulp, to a 1/4 weight and we set off drift.2 cast. I picked up a nice legal squire, I was extatic. Few more casts later, it was a repeat fish but in a squidjy. So great night for me to familiarise things ready for a massive snapper season.

Thanks all so much for your help

[Cheech]

I get my bait in 15 kg boxes of pillies or 5 kg of prawns at Richards Bros fish wholesalers. They welcome fishos but only deal in folding cash. ie no cards at all.


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I get pillies from there sometimes, when I want the smaller ones, but did not know that they did prawns. I will have to find out what else they have.Thanks.

[charleville]

I get pillies from there sometimes, when I want the smaller ones, but did not know that they did prawns. I will have to find out what else they have.Thanks.

The last lot of pillies that I got there were the smaller ones. It just seems to depend on what they have in stock because the previous lot were huge. Different suppliers.

I get 5 kg boxes of banana prawns there. They are too good to use for bait but I do because they are cheaper than what I would buy in a supermarket. The prawns are Aussie prawns, of course, marked with details such as the name of the boat which caught them and the date caught.

Call them "IQF" prawns if you like because you can take out a few at a time but a screwdriver helps to get them out. It is no more hassle than getting out IGF pillies that have been open in the freezer a while.

The prawns are big enough for me to stick them on three 4/0 ganged hooks as a whole bait.

Every now and then, I cook some and eat them. ;D

The proprietors are pretty keen anglers themselves and love to refer you to the website pictures of them as kids catching fish. They welcome anglers but as said, they only take folding cash.

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[charleville]

Well went out a little later than expected and missed the high tide but still got over there at about 830.


Thanks for reporting back. That is very good.

'Tis a shame that you could not be there for the sunset coinciding with the tide. That is the optimum situation at Mud Island.


Nonetheless, at least you now know what it is like out there at night.



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[snodger 08]

Nice work mustang, got my first flatty on plastic last weekend, a good feeling hey. I am still to catch a legal squire, but we are trying in the mouth on the 24th.
Steve

[mustang5]

Thanks guys,

@ Charleville, yeah I was dissapointed but when heading north on Friday I was stuck on the Gateway for 3 hours due to an accident. Really didnt help what we had planned but we got out there anyways so I was happy :)

@ Snodger, Yeah I know what your saying its amazing when you just feel the BANG out of knowhere. Im really looking forward to this winter now, especially given a new found excitement and starting to really improve the catch gradually.

Will have to set off the BCF and get some decent gear. Found that casting continually for a few hours really would be a whole lot more enjoyable wit some good gear.

Can anyone suggest a good combo/line combination for SP's?

Cheers guys.

Oh and P.S. Heading back out tomorrow morning hehe! Could only convince the missus to let me go a second time this W/E if I took her to Moreton for Lunch hehe.

[snodger 08]

I was using a rod from BigW. I think its 7 foot or so 2-5kg samuri plastics rod. I was surprised at how nice it was for the price. I matched it with a stradic300 spooled with 10lb tuffline and a 7 lb leader. The way it felt it would have no troubles with squire/snapper. I have a heavier one. an Egrel S10 matched to a advantage spooled the same. Both outfits seemed nice to cast all day especialy the samuri.
Steve

[charleville]

@ Charleville, yeah I was dissapointed but when heading north on Friday I was stuck on the Gateway for 3 hours due to an accident.



Ah. Bugger! :(



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